Ethical Advertising Guidelines

Health TV Limited
Ethical Advertising Guidelines

Effective January 15, 2025

Health TV communicates health information to consumers. We know how important it is for clinicians and healthcare providers to be able to trust that their patients are receiving accurate, unbiased information based on sound evidence as to the effectiveness and/or appropriateness for the New Zealand healthcare environment. As such, we take our responsibility to your patients seriously, we are committed to ethical standards in the acceptance of advertising for the Health TV network.

Our business model relies on a combination of revenue from advertising from government, non-government and commercial sources, along with subscription revenue. We aim to create a ‘real TV’ experience for viewers that is engaging and captures their attention, advertising is also key element in creating the look and feel of real TV.

Health TV applies the following Guidelines in the acceptance (or rejection) of advertising campaigns for broadcast:

 

What you won’t see:

1. Product advertising that is inconsistent with a healthy lifestyle, such as but not limited to:
• High calorie and/or high energy food and beverages including fast food, soft drinks and alcohol;
• Unhealthy lifestyle and/or food advertising targeting children;

2. Gambling advertising;

3. Advertising for products claiming a therapeutic benefit but without TAPs approval, or not likely to be supported by the General Practice fraternity.

 

What you may see:

4. Advertisements for allied health services such as dentistry, physiotherapy, optometry or pharmacy;

5. Advertisements for weight control products and services that are evidence based and promote a balanced diet and increased physical activity

6. Advertising for disease awareness and public service campaigns including but not limited to:
• Government campaigns e.g. smoking cessation, screening, immunisation, etc;
• Not for Profit organisations e.g. Heart Foundation etc;
• Charitable organisations e.g. Salvation Army, WWF, Breast Cancer NZ;

7. OTC (over-the-counter)/non-prescription medications that are supported by a reasonable evidence-base (such as paracetamol);

8. Non-health-related advertising, including but not limited to:
• Food and beverages that do not fall into the high calorie/high energy or unhealthy categories eg wholemeal bread;· Banking, Insurance services;
• Retailers (such as Pak n Save, Harvey Norman etc), although only for products that fall within these guidelines;
• Personal care products that do not make an unsubstantiated therapeutic claim;
• Car advertisements that do not promote speed or irresponsible driving;
• Educational institutions, products and training;
• Small business from your local area

 

Health TV accepts that it cannot foresee all potential issues with advertising, and where an advertisement is broadcast that is not acceptable to the Practice clinicians or patients, Health TV encourages practices to contact us directly. In keeping with our internal complaint management procedures, Health TV commits to reviewing all feedback promptly and providing a response and relevant actions as soon as practical. This may include removal of the advertisement/sponsored content where appropriate, or feedback as to the reasons for leaving the content on broadcast.

Health TV may contact Practices in advertising campaign areas from time to time to seek feedback and/or acceptance for advertising that may not easily be categorised within these Ethical Advertising Guidelines.